Yesterday I looked up from the kitchen table (also known as Sewing Central) in frustration, and realised that the time was 6.41pm, and I'd been "ruining" some fabric long past my dog's dinner time, and long into the time I was supposed to be spending relaxing, watching catch up tv and drinking a lovely pink pinot.
I actually burst into tears. Earlier in the day I'd amended a dress pattern to incorporate a zip in a much more sophisticated way than recommended, and I was flying on adrenalin and pride. Pride comes before a fall, so you can almost guess what happened... I messed up! The hissy fit resulting from my upset led to the house being scrubbed, vaccuumed and rinsed to a spotless state, the grass being cut, despite the neighbours attempting to have a calm evening in their garden with friends, no dinner and then a binge on a MacDonalds cheesburger and fries at 11pm.
I've made the dress in question before (Simplicity pattern 2406, a Cynthia Rowley dress). The first time I did it in navy cotton, and made dress B - the one with the interesting short sleeves and pockets. It's really beautiful and I made it backless, just because I loved the way the main picture on the pattern looked (looks like Emma Watson, doesn't she??). I love my backless dress, but it's not so practical to wear (exposed skin, bralessness... all that sort of thing).
This time I decided to make the same thing, but dress C, in red cotton with a white heart print. This time it's not got pockets. Why? Because I cannot get my head around them, despite doing them once before, so this time I ended up ripping them off and simply doing without. However, my tears were all due to the shoulder straps and armholes. The straps wouldn't sit right, and the bias binding didn't sit flat, exposing its innards through a gaping armhole. Adding the shoulder straps and binding managed to make the front neckline look gash, and because of the way the straps sat the back was all puffy and unpleasant.
So this morning, after my night of fury, I refuse to let it drag me down. I have a gingerbread infused coffee, Desert Island Discs, my seam ripper and I'm fixing it. Calmly and slowly. And adding the sleeves I did last time, because I know they work.
